Investors reward Iceland's steady progress

A warm reception in a cold climate for sovereign debt: Iceland's first international bond offering since its spectacular economic and banking collapse late in 2008 has been snapped up by investors

By

Richard Barley, The Wall Street Journal

Updated: June 10, 2011 8:10 pm GMT

A warm reception in a cold climate for sovereign debt: Iceland's first international bond offering since its spectacular economic and banking collapse late in 2008 has been snapped up by investors.

The five-year $1bn deal, yielding just under 5%, is a milestone in rebuilding confidence internationally and follows a turnaround in the economy, forecast to grow 2.25% this year. It will also fuel debate over whether peripheral European countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal would have fared better if they had had their...